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time between sea and plate is at its bare minimum.
If Port Lincoln is king for the fish, then nearby Coffin Bay is the
place for oysters. It’s a small settlement of holiday homes, kangaroos
blithely hopping down the main street and oyster baskets being
dragged up and down the boat ramp.
Due to a few handy quirks of geography, the bay has near-perfect
conditions for farming oysters. Plankton is washed right across
the Great Australian Bight, but a narrow gap created by a large,
protruding sandbar creates something of a bottleneck. As the tides
wash in and out, the food oysters feast on gets log-jammed in the
sheltered area behind the sandbar.
Surprisingly little of the farming process is done at sea. And to
find out where the real grunt goes in, we head to one of Coffin Bay’s
oyster sheds.
Outside, Pure Coffin Bay Oysters are the baskets that the oysters
are raised in. Owner Chris Hank explains why they’re on a liftable
line-based system. “They’re intertidal,” he says. “They like being in
and out of the water.”
It also helps in terms of longevity. The more practice the oysters
get surviving out of the water, the longer they’re going to stay fresh
when taken out for the last time and put on the refrigerated trucks
for transportation across the country.
But it’s not simply a case of plonking them in a basket, lifting
them up a few times, and waiting. The farming process involves a
surprising amount of meddling.
“They’re in and out of here about six times over the course of 18
months,” says Chris. “We put them in a clean basket, and there
needs to be fewer in each basket as they get bigger. There also
needs to be bigger gaps in the basket mesh.”
“And there’s sorting by size too. If small ones are put in with
bigger ones, the bigger ones take all the food, just like with any
creature. So they are put in baskets with oysters that are roughly
the same size.”
We buy a dozen for $8, and open them on the spot. “The best in
the world,” says David. And he might well be right. •
TRAVEL FACTS
r Getting there
Rex ([@] www.rex.com.au) and Qantas ([@] www.
qantas.com.au) fly daily from Adelaide to Port
Lincoln.
Getting around: Goin’ Off Safaris ([@] www.
goinoffsafaris.com.au) offers day tours from $160.
Shark cage diving with Calypso Star Charters ([@]
www.sharkcagediving.com.au) costs $495
e Staying there
The slick, modern Port Lincoln Hotel has rooms from
$149.
Visit: [@] www.southaustralia.com
Port Lincoln marina.
Restaurant oysters.
GetUp&Go 79